


Through the shadows, I’m coming home

by amethyst-noir (Arbonne)



Series: Prompt Collection [25]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cloak of Levitation (Marvel), Demonic Possession, Drama, Hurt Stephen Strange, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Tony Stark, Stephen is an emotional mess, Tony Takes Care of Stephen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 20:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16793983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arbonne/pseuds/amethyst-noir
Summary: "He put up quite a fight, you know? When I first got into him there was even the sliver of a chance of him being stronger than me. Took quite a while and a lot of effort to tame him. You had a wildcat, Tony, but now…" It left the rest of the sentence unspoken, Stephen's fate still unclear.Stephen gets possessed by a demon and bitter truths are revealed. Tony tries to save him before it's too late.





	Through the shadows, I’m coming home

**Author's Note:**

> My inbox should get the subttitle "let's torture Stephen Strange a little bit more":  
>  _Since you loved the last angsty prompt so much. Let’s do it again (I’m a monster, I know) More magic angst too, because why not? After an artefact breaks, a demon gets loose. And ends up possessing Stephen. Tony gets called in by Wong for assistance, but doesn’t get the full story of the whole, possessed Stephen. So Tony has to attempt to save innocent lives and Stephen, without hurting his wizard. But eventually, he has to resort to brute force and risk killing Stephen for the greater good._
> 
> Anon refers to [Locking Up the Sun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16267454/), if anybody's interested. I got this prompt shortly after posting that story; it only took me ages to write this one. /shameless self-promotion  
> It was just as much fun to write as the first one.  
> The title is taken from a GUNSHIP song again. ( _Art3mis & Parzival_ from the _Dark All Day_ album.)

"I need your help!"

Tony could barely hear Wong over the loud crash that accompanied his shout. "What?" he called back but only got an indistinguishable mix of words and noise back. Something that sounded suspiciously like an explosion drowned out the rest.

"Where are you?" he called and _thought_ he heard "Sanctum Sanctorum" back. He could work with that. He was already in the suit and up in the air by the time the call was disconnected from Wong's side. 

"What the hell's going…", he began as he crossed the threshold into the Sanctum and was greeted by another crash and a shouted curse by Wong. The rest of his words died unspoken as he saw the chaos in the main hall. "Stephen? Wong? What's going on?"

"Stark! Get in here and help me contain it!"

Wong's voice came from the library. Tony ran there and was greeted by the picture of Wong holding off Stephen with a shield that was weakening even in the few seconds it took Tony to work out what he was seeing.

"Stephen?" His shout got his lover's attention and he turned around to face Tony.

 _Something's wrong_ , was Tony's first thought. Stephen's movements were all wrong; not fluid enough but at the same time much looser than his usual, tightly controlled ones. And was that red thing lying still and bundled up in the corner the Cloak?

"Another one. Nice," Stephen said and his voice was also wrong. Even deeper and much more dangerous sounding. "I'll come back to you later. Things to do first. Sorry, librarian, playtime's over." There was a careless gesture, that must have hurt Stephen's wrist immensely, and Wong flew through the air, landing in front of the windows. He didn't move. 

"Tony Stark," Stephen purred and came nearer. Tony was still frozen with shock. "I've heard and seen so much about you. He thinks about you often, you know. He even has that fancy little idea that you saved his soul from despair or some romantic bullshit like that." He came to a standstill about three feet away from Tony. "He fought hard and valiantly. His last thought was about you and in honor of that I'll spare you." Stephen let his gaze wander up and down Tony's body, his appreciation clear. "Very nice," he finally purred. He darted forward to press a short kiss against Tony's lips. It ended with a rather brutal bite. "I'll get to you later. We're going to have so much fun together!"

Tony was still too stunned to react and by the time his brain had rebooted and made the connections Stephen had opened up a portal and had vanished through it.

"Stephen!" Tony shouted after him but it was no use. The portal closed in an swirl of unusual black sparks and left Tony behind.

A groan and a whispered "Stark" finally got him moving. He went over to Wong and helped the man up. 

"What the fuck is going on here? What happened to Stephen?!" He still stared at the spot where the portal had been, touching his sore lip.

*

The answer, predictably, was magic. Damn magic, one of the things that always managed to fuck Tony's life up when it was finally on the right track.

"We rescued a relic from Mordo and his followers," Wong explained while trying to find his way fully back to consciousness. "We wanted to secure it and bring it to Kamar-Taj for destruction." Tony wanted to shake the man. He wasn't interested in the backstory, he wanted to know what had happened to Stephen, damn it! Wong seemed to sense his thoughts and pulled himself together a little bit more quickly. "It broke and now it's on the loose."

"What is?" 

Wong swallowed and Tony passed him a glass of water. He wanted answers, but he didn't want to torture Wong to get them. "You could call it a demon, in lieu of a better word."

 _Fuck._ "And it's possessing Stephen." It was a statement, not a question. Everything made sense now and Tony felt himself shift into the age old 'must protect my loved ones' mode he'd hoped to never use again. "What can we do? What does this thing want and where did it take Stephen?"

Wong just stared at him for a long time, still dazed, before he shook his head. "Hell if I know."

*

It wanted to make an entrance into the world, apparently, and it wanted to destruct something that would get the attention of the world.

The demon in Stephen's body choose to attack the Avengers Compound, probably because Stephen knew the layout and all the weaknesses of the place inside and out. It took barely three hours to disintegrate over half of the compound and only Tony's frantic warnings made sure that almost everybody got out there before someone got hurt.

Tony didn't want to imagine how Stephen would feel if someone was hurt because of this, even though it wouldn't be his fault.

As soon as everybody was evacuated Wong and Tony tried to hunt the demon down.

It was a rather long, _explosive_ , process and Tony's fear for Stephen's body and life grew by the second.

When Tony finally had him - _it_ \- in his hold he pushed Stephen's body back against the nearest surface and just held on with all the strength he could muster with his armor. He had both of Stephen's hands in an iron hold so there should be no more magic. He was prepared to fight with all his strength but there was no resistance.

Stephen - no, the _thing_ that looked like Stephen - let his head fall back against the crumbling wall behind it and laughed. "You can't do it, Tony," it said and even managed a reasonable approximation of the usual warmth while speaking his name. It moved his neck around, much further than Stephen, thanks to his injuries, could move. Tony could hear bones and tendons crack and shivered.

"Stephen," he begged, knowing that it was futile and that Stephen was probably already gone. Wong had tried to break the news as gently as possible but Tony still had to fight back tears when he'd heard the words. "Please, don't." He was glad the he still had the helmet on and that it couldn't see his fear.

It smiled and blew Tony a kiss. "Can't kill your lover, hmm? What a shame. Should have put his body to better use while you still had the chance. It's not going to be as much fun now. I think I did a little bit of damage in here." Another crack as Stephen's head moved from one side to the other and Tony's stomach turned. Instead of losing his control and let his emotions take over he increased the pressure on Stephen's hands while silently apologizing to his love.

"Let him go", he said. It wasn't the first time. 

"Why should I? It's nice in here." It smiled. "I like you and I can see why the loved you so much. We could have so much fun, you and I. The things I can show you, the places I can take you…"

"Stop."

"He put up quite a fight, you know? When I first got into him there was even the sliver of a chance of him being stronger than me. Took quite a while and a lot of effort to tame him. You had a wildcat, Tony, but now…" It left the rest of the sentence unspoken, Stephen's fate still unclear.

Tony wanted to strangle the answer out of it but the thought of hurting Stephen's body further was too much. It already broke his heart that he had to hold Stephen's hands so tightly and had to push his body hard enough against the wall to leave bruises. He didn't even dare to think about all the other injuries he was aggravating with his rough handling. _I'm sorry, Stephen. Please forgive me._

He couldn't, _wouldn't_ , inflict irreparable damage. 

_"You have to stop it, no matter the cost"_ , Wong had told him. _"It's too dangerous to be left out in the world."_

 _"But it's in **Stephen**!_" Tony had answered. _"We have to save him first! Then this thing can go to hell or wherever it came from."_

Wong hadn't said anything to that and that silence had been clearer than any words could have been. Now, only a few hours later, half of the Avengers Compound was in ruins and Vision and War Machine where busy keeping everybody away from the battlefield while Wong and Tony tried to catch and contain the demon. Nobody else knew what was going on but the explosions and the evacuation of the Compound had undoubtedly made it to the news by now.

It had been a mix of Wong's diversionary tactic on the other end of the compound, Tony's strategic thinking and pure luck that had allowed Iron Man to catch and contain it. While inside a human host the demon wasn't much stronger than a normal human, thus easily containable with the help of the armor. As soon as the thing had realized that it couldn't get out of Tony's grip with brute force it'd switched to this bizarre blend of flirting mixed with taunting.

It broke Tony's heard to hear Stephen's wonderful voice but without his personality behind it. It was even harder to see the damage the damn thing was inflicting on his beloved. Stephen was already too pale and trembling, thanks to the blood loss from the wounds his body sustained when Wong had collapsed a building on top of him. He'd gotten out, naturally, but he was bleeding from a deep gash on his side and something was wrong with his right wrist. Tony was glad that it was now hidden behind his grip; the short glimpse he'd caught had been enough to make him afraid of what it might mean for Stephen's future. And those words by the demon that there was internal damage…

 _Fuck it_ , he finally decided. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain. "Is Stephen still alive?" He didn't know why he even tried it. There was no reason for the thing not to lie into his face.

"Yes," was the surprising answer, almost whispered. "I've subdued him, but he's still here. I wouldn't be able to use his body without his soul to keep it alive." It grinned. "He's strong but at this point he couldn't survive without _me_."

 _We'll see about that._ "Let me speak to him."

The thing put Stephen's head to the side like a cat. Tony resisted the impulse to hold his head still to keep Stephen's neck and spine from further damage. "Why?"

"Because…" Tony swallowed and finally let the helmet retract. Stephen's eyes widened in surprise and it looked pleased. Time to play. "… if you can convince me that Stephen's still in there I might be persuaded to let you go."

"Will you come with me?"

That was… not quite unexpected, considering all the quasi-flirting. "Where to?" he asked still desperately trying to formulate a plan.

It shrugged. "Another planet? Another dimension? Bali? I'm open to suggestions."

"Let me speak to Stephen first." He had arrived at desperate begging by now but it worked.

The thing nodded. "But not for long. Just enough time to say goodbye. Make no mistake, Tony, you can have his body but you'll get _me_ , not him. I'm sending him to permanent sleep after this."

Tony's nausea got even worse and he swallowed twice before nodding. That meant that Stephen was still alive. There still was a chance. As if he cared about having Stephen's body without the man himself in the driver's seat. "Okay. But I want to speak to him one last time. Please?" he added after a moment. He had given up fighting his tears by now. "I don't want him to go without knowing…" He couldn't go on but thankfully he didn't have to.

It gave a final, curt nod and then suddenly Stephen's head fell forward. After a moment a pained groan filled the air and Tony just _knew_ that Stephen was back. For a short time at least. Time to get to work then.

"Hey, Stephen?" Tony pitched his voice low and soothing, the tone he usually adopted when trying to get Stephen out of the grip of a nightmare. "Sweetheart, can you hear me? Do you know what happened to you? I'm sorry, but we don't have much time." 

He decided to continue holding Stephen's right wrist to support it and raised his right hand to gently help Stephen lift his head. He could feel the resistance in abused muscles and tendons and swallowed down a sob. Damage, indeed. Lots of it. Stephen's blood was by now staining not only his clothes and the armor but the ground, too. He had to get Stephen into a hospital ten minutes ago. "Stephen? Love? Can you tell me anything on how to get that thing out of you? It's killing you and we're running out of time."

Stephen's eyes were closed and his breathing was labored. "Tony?" he murmured in a broken voice and it took all of Tony's willpower not to scream at him to hurry up.

"I'm here, Stephen. Just tell me what to do." 

"Kill me." Stephen leaned into Tony's hand and the little bit of contact seemed to give him strength. He forced his eyes open and managed to focus them on Tony after a moment. He gave a little smile as if Tony's tear stained face was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "Let me die," he whispered. His eyes closed again and Tony barely managed to catch his head as it fell forward again. He let Stephen's head rest against his shoulder. Tony's breathing stopped and there was nothing except helpless denial in his mind. 

"No!"

No reaction. Tony was afraid that he'd lost his chance and Stephen had finally succumbed to unconsciousness but after a moment Stephen forced himself to speak again in a barely there whisper: "It can't survive without me. If I die, it dies with me." He tried to move his left hand and grabbed onto Tony's hip, the implication clear. Tony made his decision immediately and retracted the armor on his right hand. After a moment of fumbling on Stephen's side Tony finally realized what he really wanted and carefully entwined their fingers.

"Stephen," he said helplessly. "I _can't_." He couldn't let him go on Titan, when he'd barely known Stephen, how was he supposed to do it now, after falling in love with him? After daring to hope to have a future with the most amazing man he'd ever met by his side? They were barely out of their honeymoon phase, for heaven's sake, and only just starting to go on each other's nerves from time to time.

"You can bring me back after it's gone. You've done it once, you can do it again." Stephen forced his head to the side to press a soft kiss against Tony's neck. "It's coming back. You can do it, I know you can. Please, stay with me." Stephen convulsed for a moment before his body relaxed abruptly. Almost as if he was already dead. Tony shuddered, Stephen's _kill me_ still repeating itself over and over again in his mind. He barely had enough time to reform the armor around his hand and immobilize Stephen's left hand again before it was back.

It raised Stephen's head to look Tony directly in the eyes. "Did you make your goodbyes? Was it heartfelt? Did he tell you how much he loves you? How much he regrets it that he's a ruined shell of a man and not nearly enough for you? That he's away for most of the time and when he's here he's so exhausted that he can barely function? How much he wishes to be the man you see in him? To be able to give you what he thinks you deserve?" It laughed, bitter and ugly. "Your Stephen Strange is such a wreck, mentally and physically, that it's almost a mercy to put him out of his misery, don't you agree? I can promise you that things will change now. I can do so much more with this body than he ever could." It leered at Tony. "We're going to have so much fun together!"

Tony just stared unbelievingly, to stunned by the barrage of words and the bitter truths hidden in them. Fortunately, it made it easier for him to do what he had to do. After he'd gotten Stephen back he could spend the rest of his days trying to repair the fractures in Stephen's psyche. But he had to take care of his body first.

"I'm sorry, Stephen," he whispered and before the demon could quite comprehend what had happened Tony loosened his grip on Stephen's wrists and put his hands around his throat instead.

It took a only a little bit of pressure before Stephen's overtaxed body gave out and the sensors in the suit told Tony that he had a corpse in his arms. A second later he had Stephen in a secure hold and they were up in the air, on the way to the medical wing. "FRIDAY?" he screamed. "Get everything in the med bay online and get the medical team back in there ASAP." Considering Stephen's overall condition CPR on the field would be next to useless, especially since they had a state-of-the-art medical facility literally a stone throw away.

"Already there and waiting, boss", was the answer. "I took the liberty of alerting them and Master Wong as soon as I realized what was going on. It's going to be okay."

FRIDAY's gentle words where the final push and by the time Tony carefully laid Stephen's body down on the operating table before being pushed out by the doctors he was a sobbing, useless mess. "Come back to me, please stay with me…", he whispered over and over again. Stephen's body, bloody and unmoving, was the last thing he saw as the doors closed in his face. He could hear muffled shouts behind them as a team of highly trained professionals did everything in their power to bring Stephen back to life.

It took Rhodey and Wong two hours to calm Tony down enough to tell the story about what happened. He finally fell asleep, exhausted and heartbroken, in Rhodey's arms. He still had Stephen's blood on his hands.

* 

_I killed him_ , Tony thought for the millionth time as he came back to the room after a quick bathroom break and a shower. _I killed Stephen._

The Cloak, immobilized with a spell by the demon, had been freed by Wong and held its own vigil on Stephen's bedside. It waved to Tony and he waved back as he made his way to his usual place beside Stephen's hospital bed. They both waited for him to wake up. By now he was breathing on his own but the bruises on his throat still stood out loud and clear against his pale skin. The memory of inflicting them haunted Tony permanently. Thankfully, the demon had exaggerated the extend of the injuries quite a bit. The damage to Stephen's neck and spine had been minimal, just a few bruises and a strain on his muscles and tendons. Due to the deep cut on his left side he had lost a lot of blood but the injury itself had been surprisingly harmless, miraculously missing all the vital organs. Resuscitation had been remarkably easy and Stephen had responded well to everything afterwards, very much to the astonishment of the attending doctors who, considering his medical history, had expected much more of a fight for his life.

They didn't know Stephen and how strong and stubborn he was.

But Stephen's right wrist was another matter. It had not only been broken but shattered, bones and metal broken and bent out of shape, the soft tissue torn. For a while they doctors hadn't been sure but thanks to all the high-tech and all the hours and money Tony had put into research the last few years they were able to save it. It was no longer plain metal but nanotech holding everything together and the scarring would be even worse but Stephen still had a hand.

These days, nanites were the only thing that kept Tony's heart beating and his lungs working without an implanted arc reactor and if they could do that they could support repeatedly broken bones and torn tendons and help sending signals along damaged nerves. He had to believe that, otherwise he could just give up right now.

After months, if not years, of physiotherapy the hand might work even a little bit better than before. There was no way to know in how much pain Stephen would be in until he woke up and got off the painkillers. A worry for another time. Tony knew that he made the same decision that Stephen himself would have made if he'd been conscious. They'd talked about what-if's and contingency plans more than often enough after all.

"Hey," Tony said softly as he settled down in his usual place for another day of waiting and hoping. It was the left side of the bed so that he could take Stephen's uninjured hand into his own and try to communicate through touch. He hoped that Stephen could feel and hear him. "Sorry to leave you alone but the call of nature, you know." He closed his eyes, exhausted after a week with little rest but lots of worries and regrets. "Everything's going well with the rebuilding. I thought you wanted to know that. Nobody got hurt - except for you, of course. We've finally managed to get a complete tally. It's pandemonium out there." Tony had to hold back a sob right now but managed to keep it in and stay dry-eyed. He had lots of experience doing that by now. "Wong sends his love. He'll be here tomorrow after the urn or whatever it was where _it_ escaped from is disposed of. He's sorry about everything, even though he has no reason for that, and promised to take over your watch when you're out of here so that I can take you away to recover. There's this nice, secluded house I own. I'm going to spoil the hell out of you."

In truth Tony wanted to run to the other end of the galaxy instead of facing Stephen after he woke up. But Stephen's last request forbade him to do so. It had taken him a while - and a not quite subtle explanation by Rhodey - to figure out what Stephen had meant.

 _Please, stay with me._ Stephen had sounded so desperate, resigned and had been in so much pain that the memory alone brought tears to Tony’s eyes all over again.

Stay with me, don't leave me after this. I won't hate you, please don't hate me. I need you by my side. I'm sorry.

That, coupled with the dark allusions of the demon, stopped every impulse Tony might have to run in its tracks. He'd known that Stephen constantly fought to find a balance between his duties and his private life, that he regretted that duty most often won out and that he couldn't be what Pepper had been. A rock for Tony to lean on, to draw strength from. Instead it was _Tony_ who was the rock now, trying to make Stephen's life just a little bit more bearable and fighting to keep the shadows away.

He hadn't known just how close to the breaking point Stephen was. Neither had Wong. After Stephen's recovery things would change, they'd mutually agreed. His health wouldn't allow him to take up his duties again for months and in the meantime, Wong would reorganize to balance everything out and delegate more.

"No magic for you for quite a while, I fear," he continued. "You're just going to rest and heal. Physically and mentally." The fingers in his hand twitched and he tightened his hold in response, afraid to look up.

"Tony." As always Stephen managed to put a world of warmth and love into his name, even when his voice was a hoarse and broken whisper. "You're here."

Tony looked up and forced a smile onto his face. "Of course I'm here. I've been here for a week, watching over you." _Finally._ He should probably get someone, now that Stephen was awake. He didn’t move an inch. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Thank you," Stephen said. "I knew you could do it." His eyes closed again. "Stay?"

Tony stood up to press a chaste kiss against his dry lips. "Of course. You're not going to get rid of me that easily. Rest now, I'll be here when you wake up again."

After Stephen had slipped away again Tony took his left hand once more and settled down to wait. "FRIDAY? Tell the doctors that he woke up and to be on standby."

"Yes, boss. It's good to have him back."

Tony looked up at the nearest camera and smiled at it. "Yes, it is."

He was still holding on hours later, when Stephen finally woke up long enough to comprehend his surroundings and ask questions.

**Author's Note:**

> [Orginal post](https://amethyst-noir.tumblr.com/post/180620028016/coming-home), where you can find the "let's torture Stephen Strange a little bit more" box. ;) Or scream at me to stop torturing the poor guy and give him something fluffy with butterflies instead.


End file.
